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ORATION, 



KELIVERKI) BEFORB THE 



ADDISON COUNTY ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY 



FOURTH OF JULY, 1836 



BY EDWARD D. KARBER. 



MIDDLEBURY . 

K :< A p r A N' II J E w E T T , r n I N r K R » . 

1836. 



EU9 



MiDDLEBURY, JuNE 20, 183G. 

E. D. Barber, Esq., 

Sir, — I am directed by the Executive Committee of the Addison 
County Anti-Slavery Society, to request you to deliver an Oration before 
said Society on the fourth of July next. The Committee arc solicitous, 
sir, that you will find it consistent with your other engagements to comply 
with this invitation. 

Your obedient servant, 

M. D. GORDON, Rec. Sec. 



E. D. Barber, Esq., 

Dear Sir, — Wc are directed by the Addison County Anti-Slavcry 
Society to present you its thanks for the Oration delivered by you this day, 
in vindication of those righteous principles of liberty which it is the design 
of the association to promote, and to request a copy for the press. 
Wc arc, dear sir. 

Very respectfully. 

Your fellow citizens, 

Jonathan A. Allen, ") 



Middlebury, July 4, 1836. 



Chauncey Cook, Exfcutive 

M. D. Gordon, Yn ,,^it^l 

r\ T \ (committee. 

Oliver Johnson, J 

B. Carpenter, J 



,.f i~ 



/ .**- 



y^i^ 



ORATION. 



We have met, lullow citizens, on a day consecrated in the hearts of us 
all by patriotic and blessed recollections. It is the natal day of our coun- 
try's independence. Hallowed as it is by tlie toils and blooil of our fatlicrs, 
it should be held sacred to human liberty and human rights. Though we 
come not together with banner and trumpet, with parade and ceremonyi 
yet wo feel that is good to hail its annual return with tokens of joy and 
tlianksgiviug. We would not forget the countless blessings and priceless 
benefits wliich have been conferred upon us by our heroic sires, but would 
rather, under the inspiration of tlic memories which the occasion brings 
witli it, recount their daring achievements, their sacrifices, their sufForings, 
their toils, their privations, their patient endurance, their self-sacrificing 
devotion, their trials and their triumphs, that wc might enjoy the rich in- 
heritance which they thus purchased for us. It is good for us to drink in 
the spirit which animated their bosoms — to catch the fervor of their devo- 
tion to the riglils of man — to break the sluggishness of our own patriotism by 
estimating the price they paid for the privileges amid which our lot is cast 
— and to enkindle within our own Ijosoms those lofty emotions which carried 
them tin-ougli want, defeat, despondency and disaster to the proudest tri- 
umph in the annals of the world. That soul mus:t, indeed, be dead, that, 
on this day, with tlio voice of the pflst whispering in his oar the deeds of 
his revolutionary fatliers and tuning his heart to the music of freedom, 
does not swell witli unwonted emotions and kindle with the noblest aspi- 
rations. Witli such influences upon liim, tlie sealed fountains of liis bosom 
must be broken up and from their inmost depths will come welling up the 
sweetest waters of patriotism — the purest flowings of the spirit of liberty. 

But this anniversary should never be permitted to pass without a recur, 
rcncc to the principles which were asserted by our forefathers — established 
by the revolution and made the basis of our political fabric. In our devo- 
tions to tlie name we should not forgot the .spirit of liberty. If we boast of 
our institutions, and spend our breath in panegyrics upon those who foun- 
ded them, lot us, at least, be sure to know what they are, for what they 
were established and how they are regarded. While wc dwell upon the 
memories of our sires and exalt them to be saints in the calendars of free- 
dom, let us be certain that the doctrines for which they bled, are worthy of 
acceptation, and that we arc not despising and rejecting them. Was the 
American Revolution a contest about icords? Was there nothing of eter- 
nal, immutable right in the principles for which those who achieved it, 
perilled their all — their lives, thrir fortunes, and tlieir sacred honor ? Did 
they bare tlicir bosoms to death, and hazard tlifir memories to infimy, f)r 
mere abstractions, t!iat sliould be llic watcliwords of liberty to-day and tlic 
maxims of a discarded philosophy to-morrow ? Were the doctrines of the 
revolution got up as the mi'ro stalking horses of faction and rebellion — to 
delude by (bi'jr fj])<'riouRness and mislr^ad by tir^ir fiisily — lobnronif^, when 



thoy had anBweretl a present purpose, the mere puppets of oxpodioncy and 
bo exalted as the axioms of froodom at one time and sneered at as vagarica 
at another ? Were the}^ and are tlicy not rather tlie immoveable founda- 
tions of all that is sacred in human rights and ennobling in human liberty ? 
Shall we so libel the memories of Washington and his com-patriots, as to 
say that they attempted to dignify, as realities, the whims of the fancy or 
the flourishes of the rhetorician ? The blood shed on Bunker's desperate 
mount, on the victorious heights of Bemis, on the blazing plains of Mon- 
mouth and the fatal field of Camden, would cry shame, on such a declara. 
tion. The noble self-devotion, the holy perseverance, the untold suffer- 
ings and boundless sacrifices of those who reared the splendid fabric of our 
government, bear irrefutable testimony that their labors were directed to 
what they deemed the most inestimable of human blessings. And what 
were the principles of the Revolution? We have them in the noble in- 
strument by which our fathers declared themselves independent of British 
power. The broad foundation of government which is there laid, is briefly 
comprised in the following sentences : 

" We hold these truths to bo self-evident ; that all men are created 
equal ; that they aye endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable 
rights ; that among tlicse are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ; 
that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men deriv- 
ing their just powers from the consent of the governed ; that when any 
form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the riglit of 
the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying 
its foundations on such principles and organizing its powers in such form 
as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness." 

On this endurable basis of human rights has been reared the proud su. 
perstructure of of the American Republic. And is not the banner of such 
a government the refuge of the oppressed of all nations ? May not the 
bleeding victims of rapacity and tyrannous exaction find protection behind 
the vEgis which is thus extended to guard the " inalienable rights" of man ? 
Surely, the contemner of human liberty, who dares to raise his hand 
against the life and liberty of liis neighbor and snatch him by violence from 
the pursuit of happiness, must meet, amid the influences of such a govern- 
ment and the exalted patriotism of its citizens, that scorn and indignation 
which shall send him cowering from the haunts of men, the outcast from 
sympathy and hops. Surely, most surely, whenever the manacled slave, 
escaping from the time worn despotisms of the old world, plants his foot 
on the soil protected by institutions formed upon such models, his chains 
fall, and he starts, at once regenerated, into the dignity of manhood and 
the glorious exaltation, of freedom. Oh ! my country would it were so ! 
How appropriate to thy principles and yet how false to thy practice ! 
The banner of this Republic, instead of being a "refuge for the stricken 
slave," floats above the clanking of chains, the resounding of tlie lash, the 
shrieks of the scourged victim, and the crouching of the subdued spirit, 
and in the waving of its gorgeous folds is no sign of hope or mercy to the 
oppressed. The spots most hallowed in the recollections of the patriot — 
the very Meccas of freedom are trod by the fettered heel and wept over by 
the crushed spirit. 

" By storied hill and hallowed grot, 
By mossy wood and marshy glen, 
Whnnc rang of old the rifle shot 

And hurrying shout of Marion's men I 



*riie groan of breaking hearts is there, 

Tho falling lash — tlio fetter's clank, 
Slaves — Slaves are breathing in that air 

Which old DcKalb and Sunipter drank." 

American slavery, then, sliould be tho subject of discussion, animadver- 
sion and indignant eloquence on every anniversary of our country's inde- 
pendence, until not a bondman is found witliin its borders. Tho free spirit 
of our fathers should be rekindled in the bosoms of their degenerate sons, t 
their stern, though beneficent principles should be proclaimed, with trumpet 
tongue, in every corner of the land on the day most hallowed in its annals. 
Tlie present, instead of being an appropriate occasion to boast of virtues 
which we do not possess, and to minister to national vanity, by inflated 
declamation of a freedom which to millions of our countrymen is a mock- 
ery, should be a time for humiliation, that American liberty is but tho 
hiding place of the most bitter oppression. 

My purpose is to direct your attention to slavery as a national evil, and 
the means of its correction as such. 

It will not be necessary for mo to give you an extended description of 

what American slavery is. It is sufficient to know that it is slavery that 

it is depriving human beings of their " injilicnable rights" — that it is shut- 
ting them out trom every degree of liberty — leaving them no means of 
pursuing their own happiness and subjecting even their lives to the capri- 
ciousness of a tyrant's will — that it transforms 7nen into things — subjects 
them to be sold as merchandize — deprives them of tho exercise of the best 
and holiest affi?ctions of tho human heart — shuts them out from knowledge 
— makes them instruments to minister to tho rapacity and lust of their 
masters — crushes the spirit of freedom and manhood in their souls — ren- 
ders them abject and brutal in their aspirations, and degrades those who 
are created in the image of God, to the condition of the bruto. The slave 
of this republic has no rights — he has no right to himself — to the use of his 
limbs or the rewards of his toil — even his children and his wife are anoth- 
er's property. Tho powers of his mind and the energies of his body are 
directed by a will not his own, and his life is one long round of toil, suffer- 
ing and despair. The hour of death only, is the hour of emancipation to 
him. Here, then, we have an institution in the midst of us, which is 
founded on the destruction of those very principles — those "self-evident 
truths," which are the corner stones of our political edifice ! An institu- 
tion which denies that " all men arc created equal" — that they " are endow- 
ed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights" — and that " life, liberty, 
and the pursuit of happiness" belong to all alike ; and the government of 
the country, instead of securing those rights to each individual, suffers 
them, in millions of cases, to be seized upon and yielded up to the most 
unlimited despotism. 

Now wliat effect must the existence of this institution have upon the 
sentiment of the nation, if it is continued and acquiesced in ? Is not every 
man who silently yields his assent to its continuance, directly assenting to 
the overthrow of the great principles of the Declaration of Independence ? 
Is he not living down those principles — making them a dead letter — treat, 
ing them as though they were not everlasting truths, upon which rest the 
happiness, elevation and glory of his race, but as doctrines to be asserted 
and maintained only when they are necessary for his good and the good of 



b 

tiiosc WHOSO Kkin is colored like liis own >. The inevitable result of au 
acquiescence in the continuance of slavery in tliis government, will be to 
drag down tlie public sentiment of tlie non-slaveholding states, to a dcbas- 
ing approximation to that of tlie slave-holdinj^ ones. A hesitation now to 
assert the principles of universal freedom and the inviolability of tlic rights 
which God lias given to all men, will soon end in open neglect of those 
principles and rights, and finally sink into a base subserviency to the views of 
those who live in their habitual violation. If the eternal principles of lib- 
erty arc not boldly proclaimed and resolutely defended, in defiance of power, 
in the face of ambition, and in the teeth of interest, how soon will freedom 
become but a name — a shadow without the substance — the gilded sepulchre 
of human rights — the garnished mausoleum of the dearest interests of hu- 
manity. If the spirit of liberty is not maintained with its forms, it is but a 
mockery. If, while we celebrate with bonfires and illuminations, with the 
thunders of artillery, the shouts of tlie populace, and tlie waving of banners, 
with pomp and ceremony, with anthem and oration, the independence and 
freedom of our country, we, at the same time, look with complacency upon 
the slave auctions, slave prisons, slave ships and slave drivers, which dis- 
grace, deform and infest the capital of the republic, to what does all our 
parade and noise amount, but hollow pageantry and heartless sound ? If 
any one among us feels, as he should feel, his bosom will burn with indig- 
nation at the thought, that a slave market can exist on any spot guarded 
by the Eagle of American Liberty. The public feeling and tone on the 
subject of slavery have gone fearfully backward in this nation since the days 
of the revolution. The sentiment which prevailed this day 177G, is but 
faintly sliadowod forth by that of the present time. As the sun of our glory 
has risen higher in the heavens, his rays have become dimmer and his radi- 
ance less genial. In the time of our forefathers, though slavery existed 
among us, not a voice was ever raised in its defence — tliere was no thought 
then, how it should be perpetuated, but how it should be aholished. The 
patriots of the North and South hold the same sentiments in relation to its 
continuance. Its existence was recognized in the constitution, not with 
the intention that it should bo sanctioned thereby and its evils prolonged, 
but with the earnest wisli and expectation of the framers of that instru- 
ment that it would speedily be abandoned. Franklin, Jay, Rush, and a 
host of othersin the North labored in conjunction with Jefl'orson and others 
in the South for its extinction. The tendency of public opinion at that 
day throughout the nation was to its abolition. But the spirit and feeling 
of those times passed away with the race that produced and nourished 
them. The country became gradually silent upon the subject and the 
gloom of the evil become deeper and darker. The bird of eagle eye and 
wing was chased from his own chosen eyry, by the croakings of the raven 
of domestic despotism. The voice of condemnation — the pleadirLgs of love 
— the remonstrances of candor — the appeals of patriotism, and the stern 
i-ebukes of justice were all hushed, and the land finally slept in a moral 
lethargy. Tlie public conscience was paralized — the public sentiment was 
voiceless, and the Goliath of public patriotism slept in the lap of the Deli- 
lah of tyranny — his locks shorn — his heavy slumbers unbroken by the 
shrieks of the slave and jiis giant limbs grown nerveless by inaction and 
effeminacy. In tlio mean time, the monster. Slavery, grew apace. The 
shackle half knocked from the limbs of the bondman, was re-riveted — the 



t 

car tliut had become sensitive to the pleadings of huiiiaiiity, grew deaf to 
tho increasing entreaties — tlic hand lialf stretched to tlio deliverance of the 
bleeding captive, sank powerless by the side, or bocamo nerved for deeds 
of atrocity — the eye that grew moist with pity at the wrongs of tlie inno- 
cent and defencclosfi, became slowly callous to tlic stripes and agonies of 
tho lacerated victims, and tlio soul tliat bi?gan to glow with the impulses 
of pliilanthropy and love, grew chill in all its generous sympathies. And 
now, when tho cry of Freedom is up again and liur clarion voico is heard 
througliout the land. Slavery, instead of cowering to her dungeons an<l 
hiding her whips and chains from the eye of scrutiny, erects her foul and 
snaky form through half the borders of tho Republic — hisses her proud 
defiance to the efforts of tho free — coils her tortuous folds more closch' 
around her million victims and proclaims herself, with undaunted front, 
the mother, tho nurse, the patron, tho guardian of holy liberty ! Oh ! 
most impious assumption I Most foul aspersion upon the memories of our 
sires ! 

Thus we sec, fellow citizens, to what even indifference in the cause of 
human rights, most directly and inevitably leads. There can be no neu. 
tral ground between freedom and slaveiy. To be silent when our neigh, 
bor is despoiled of his liberty, degraded and imbruted, is but a step towards 
becoming the spoilers ourselves. If we do not go forward in behalf of the 
oppressed, we shall, most assuredly go backward. The issue which is now 
made up before the people of the United Slates, between the opposors and 
advocates of involuntary servitude is. Shall slavery be perpetual ? Who is 
tlicrC: with soul so dead that he will say, yea, to such a proposition ? 

But is tliis a matter with which tiie whole people of the United States 
arc concerned ? What have wo at the North, wlio have no slaves, to do 
with slavery in the South ? Is it of no concern to us that this principle of 
evil exists in the nation — is at war with the genius andtiie fundamental doc- 
trines of our institutions and is constantly degrading and besotting the 
spirit of the people ? Is it nothing that it renders us, 

" The Christian's scorn — the Heathen's mirth." ? 

Are wc to rest calmly with the brand of infamy hissing on our foreheads, 
in consequence of the connexion which we have with its bonds of blood ? 
Ought we not at least to wash our hands before the world, of any acquiescence 
in its wrongs and guilt ? But as men and philanthropists have we nothing to 
do in this matter ? Why, lot me ask, arc the chords of our hearts so tuned that 
the cry of the injured — the wail of the oppressed and the supplications of the 
needy find a ready response within us and impel us to their relief? Why 
do wc burn with indignation at the relation of wrong and outrage? Why 
do we instinctively fly to the succor of the distressed? It is because God 
has given to man, in these impulses of his nature, a hold upon his fellow 
— a shield from his rapacity and a barrier to his wrath. He has bound to. 
gcther the human fiimily by these impalpable, though enduring bonds, for 
the most glorious and beneficent purposes. In these emotions of our 
souls arc found the strongest bulwarks of human freedom. They arc break- 
waters, built up by the Almighty in the ocean of human passion. From 
these sympathies flov/ forth the purest aspirations of philanthopy — the 
noblest efforts of patriotism. Without these the world would be one vast 
.Aceldama — there would be no right except in the strong arm — no liberty 



8 

except in the might of the conqueror — no ear to listen to the cry of the in. 
jurcd and no hand to save the " writhing slaves of wrong." To stifle these 
^motions, then, is to do violence to the " divinity that stirs within us" — 
it is to outrage the spirit that gave us our own liberties, and that is our 
surest defence against tlie approaches of despotism. And shall Americans 
have no feeling for the bondmen in their own borders ? Shall their sym- 
pathies be squandered upon the oppressed of other climes, while millions 
of their own countrymen bow beneath a yoke more galling than that 
which fi'ots upon the neck of the Eastern serf? 

" What ! Shall we send with lavish breath, 

Our sympathies across the wave, 
Where manhood on the field of death 

Strikes for his freedom or a grave ? 
Shall prayers go up and hymns be sung 

For Greece, the Moslem fetter spurning. 
And millions hail with pen and tongue. 

Our light on all her altars burning ? 

Shall Belgium feci and gallant France 

By Vendome's pile and Schoenbrun's wall. 
And Poland, gasping on her lance, 

The impulse of our cheering call? 
And shall the slave beneath our eye 

Clank o'er our fields his hateful chais. 
And toss his fettered arms on high 

And groan for freedom's gift in vain ?" 

Ay, shall it be a concern of ours to cheer the Pole in his death struggle 
for freedom and to feed the Greek while striking for the renovation of his 
country's liberties, and yet have nothing to do with beating the chain from 
the thrall of the San tee and Potomac? How shall the nations of the old 
world laugh to scorn our hypocrisy, if, while we cheer on the oppressed 
of their soils to victory we help to fasten the manacle on our own coun- 
trymen ! How should we libel the American name and bring hissing up- 
on American patriotism ! As men, as philanthropists, as patriots and above 
all, as Americans, we have something to do with slavery. 

How often do we hear it said, that we ought not to meddle with slavery, 
because it is recognised by the constitution. What ! shall we live under a 
constitution that recognises the existence of such an institution, and have 
no right to purge the land of the evil ? Are we forbidden to touch those 
subjects which are embiaced in the constitution ? It is because the su- 
preme law of the land recognises the existence of this blot upon our institu- 
tions, that we feel bound to labor to wash it away. It is because we live 
in a slaveholding government, that the necessity is laid upon us to wipe 
the stain from oui escutcheon. While we continue to sanction, even by 
our silence, this antagonist principle of freedom amongst us, we are waging 
a direct war upon the existence of the government itself. Slavery and 
free institutions cannot exist in contact for a long time; the one must, soon- 
er or later, destroy the other. By the constitution, we are indirectly made 
responsible for the continuance of slavery as long as the cupidity and per- 
verseness of the slaveholder may remain unsubdued. The whole power of 
the free states is pledged to the suppression of " domestic violence" in the 
slave states, and is thus arrayed against the efforts of the slave for freedom 
10 long as the sj'stem is perpetuated. And shall wo be bound to protect 
the Blavcholdor in his oppression and not be permitted, by peaceable means 



to roinovo tho cause «f so uiiliol}' mi abli<^ation ? Shall tliia pliiiriii; -strict- 
■on body bo cli;iin<'<l to llio frnenicn of this country, und they hiivo uo pow- 
n to cast off tht; loathsome burden .' But the pcoi)l(! of tho free states aro 
directly guilty of this groat evil. They hold in their own hands tho chain* 
that aru fastened around tho necks of their countrymen. This govern- 
nicnt is not by implication, biut by practics a alaveliolding governnicnt. 
Its laws permit slavery — it soils tiie privih^go of slave trafficing — its very 
capital is the greatest slave njart in tho world. Congress legislate, not to 
make tho black men free, but to render surer his thraldom. AVith Ihi; pow- 
<-r in tlieir own hands, the free states not only suffer slavery to e.xist, in ita 
^nost revolting fi?atures, in the District undej- tJio " exclusive juri.sdiction" 
of the general government, but even refuse to mitigate its horrors I Even 
the Congri-ss which clo.ses its session this day, has put forth, by a commit- 
tee selected for that very purpose, an elaborate show of rcason.s why tho 
capital ot tho nation, should continue to boa depot of human njcrchandiso 
— a costly bundle of sickly arguments and misar;U)lo sophistrie.s to jjrovc 
tliat it is " inexpedient" to restore to men their " malienahlc rigkt.i" .' 

Let him who thinks that slavery is no concern of ours, walk witii me for 
a moment to the city which bears tiio name of the father of his country — 
behold there thousands of our f How men dragging out their lives in hope- 
less servitude — ^see the mansion even of tho chief magistrate of the repub . 
lie surrounded with slaves — look at tha gaxettcs which are groaniuw with 
speeches of reverend legislators in honor of liberty, crowded with adver- 
tisements for human beings, /or whom the highest prices will be paid — see 
the slave driver and soul trafficker stalk unabashed through its streets — be- 
trold that long lino of men, women and children go clanking the cofflo un. 
■der the very walls of tho capitol — see yon prison filled witli tho victims 
•of oppression — ^listen to the groans and shrieks and agonies, mingled with 
the resounding of the lash, which 611 ite vaults — behold yon ship freighted 
with human flesh and blood, witli fettered limbs aJid bursting hearts, sail- 
ing for the land of doom and deatli — turn then to the human shambles — see 
the image of God sold to the higlicst bidder — seethe husband torn from the 
wife and the parents riven from the children and see Olii see.' tho tortur- 
ed soul stifle its holiest emotions under the terror of tiie lash -, and having 
«een and heard all this, tell me, if he who willingly suffers these things to 
continue one memont while ho has a voieo to tell against them, is 
not a participator in these atrocities — is not verily guilty of abetting them 
all 1 And all this because the rcpresontativcs of freemen yield to tho haugh. 
ty demands of the lepi-cscntativcs of slaveholders and tli«ir slaves. Be- 
cause those who have tlie power to arrest these outrages, do not concern 
themselves with exercising that power ', 

What a tissue of absurdities and inconsistences is American freedoro. 
and American legislation I While wc spend our breath in boaeiting of tho 
liberal principles of our goveriinient and the humanizing spirit of our in- 
.stitutioiis, our country is more deeply besotted with the spirit of slavehold- 
ing than any otlicr nation on the f.ic^ of tho globe. Our orators in Con- 
•grcss prate ioud and long and daily of the rights of man and tho blessing* 
of free governments, and they do it with the clank of the slave's chain, the 
crack of the davo driver's whip and tho rapof the-elave auctioneer's hani- 
hier ringing in tlvir ears. Our nalionnl logislaturo gravely enactn the 
African slave trade 1o be piracy and punishes it with death, while an Mjual- 
!y horrible traffic is carried on without notice or animadversion, under jt» 
•own eyes between the different ai/.dv^ of the union — ay, between the Oi». 
J.rjct of Coluiuhia itself and the seuthejn portion."! "f the ninibij*-. Nay, 



10 

Congress even permits men to be arrested and imprisoned in the Capitul, 
on a suspicion that they are not free, and instead of presuming them to be 
possessed of their " inalienabe rights," until it is proved that they have 
been robbed of them, it is assumed, that they are not American citizens, 
entitled to liberty and the protection of the laws unless they can prove it, 
by some higher evidence than the impress of the Almighty ; and failing to 
do this, they are sold into perpetual bondage, to pay the foes occcasioned 
by their country's suspecting them not to be, what its great Bill of Rights 
declares every man to he, free .' This is the legalized piracy of freedom ! 
We claim that our example in the cause of liberty, is giving free institutions 
to the priest and king-ridden people of other nations and boast what a re. 
deeming spirit we are sending abroad throughout the world to spread liberal 
principles and raise up freo governments, while we are rapidly adding 
states to our confederacy whose constitutions not only permit the existence 
of slavery but in one instance even prohibit its abolition ! We call Ameri- 
ca the asylum of the oppressed and the refuge of the fugitives from tyran- 
ny, and yet when our own countrymen fly from the toils and stripes of 
slavery and seek refuge on a soil protected by a free constitution, instead 
of finding an asylum, they find a dungeon and a return to bondage the on. 
ly mercies in store for them. How humiliating is the contemplation of 
such inconsistences in our government ! And yet how necessary is such 
contemplation to feel fully how great is the evil of slavery and how deeply 
we are implicated in its existence ! 

That slavery is a concern of ours as men, as philanthropists, as patriots 
and above all as Americans, cannot be denied. How then shall we arrest 
its horrors and banish it from the country ? It must be done by the jmiver 
of truth upon the minds and consciences of the nation. The revolution which 
must take place before slavery is overthrown in this nation, must be a sig. 
nal though a bloodless one — a revolution in the hearts of tlie people. It 
has been commenced, is progressing and must bo consummated by discus, 
eion — free, manly, earnest discussion. 

In the contest which is waging on this subject, even the most obvi- 
ous and vital principles of liberty and of free institutions, have not only 
to be re. asserted, but maintained in the face of public odium and in defiance 
of violence and outrage. Even tlie right of discussing this subject has been 
drawn in question, and to tlie phrensy of the slaveholder, have been 
added the denunciations of the non-slaveholder, against the efforts of anti- 
slavery men. If we yield the right in one instance, on any pretences of 
delicacy — interference with matters not belonging to us — and meddling with 
things we do not understand, we yield the entire principle. For who docs 
not see that pretexts equally plausible may bo framed to gag inquiry on 
any question which may bo allied to the cupidity of the vile, the insolence 
of the powerful, and the licentiousness of the unprincipled? The right 
must be maintained in the abstract and not one jot or tittle of it must be 
yielded to any man or set of men on any pretext whatever. It is a right 
given by God — it is antecedent to human enactments and human constitu. 
tions — it is an essential attribute of intellectual as well as political free- 
dom ; and must be held inviolable by every government which aims to 
secure to ite citizens the blessings of liberty. For what did God create 
the mysterious machinery of the human mind ? Was it to minister to the 
appetites of the animal portion of our natures — to centre its energies in 
self and decay in slothfulness ? It is too noble u creation for such a des- 
tiny. Its powers are fitted for higher purposes. It was made to explore 
the worlds of matter, mind and emotion— to search out the blessings which 



11 

lie stored in the univcrsn of God for his croaturcs and to bring forth from 
tljeBtofc houso of nature, tlic treasures of science, philosopliy and art. Its 
clement is inquiry — it secures its conquests only by discussion. It is this 
principle of moral power which has shaken the trammels of ignorance, 
superstition and bigotry from the human mind and elevated it to the en- 
joymcnt of civil and religious liberty. 

This freedom of inquiry is a necessary element in every free govern, 
ment — it is, indeed the vital principle in its organization. Intelligence is 
requisite to a sound public opinion, and intelligence is the offspring of in- 
quiry and investigation. Institutions of government are popular in their 
nature and structure only so far as they give scope to the activity of this 
engine of good. Tlie public sentiment can have no force only so far as it 
is enlightened and elevated, and it can be enlightened and elevated only in 
proportion as the means of information are multiplied and the conflict of 
minds in the arena of public di.scussion elicits the truth. Accordingly our 
institutions are based on this great conservative principle of popular rights 
and popular power. The government is so organized as to feel the play 
of, and body forth the public opinion, which is the creature of those main 
instruments of discussion, the freedom of spcecJi and of the press. To 
secure the great safeguard of liberty, of which I am speaking, from en- 
croachment, the constitution provides that "Congress shall make no law 
abridging the freedom of speech or the press." The power to restrict dis- 
cussion is taken entirely away. Every measure of government, every 
institution and every question of public interest, are, therefore, open to 
animadversion and scrutiny, slavery among the rest. 

This principle in a free government is mighty to the abolisliing of the 
abuses of darker ages, and to the tearing down of the strong holds of op- 
pression and tyranny. It possesses, also, a renovating and life-giving in- 
fluence, and is constantly establishing new guards and setting new watches 
to secure the immunities of the peoplo. It knows no resting place in the 
march of human improvmcnt. It removes the rubbish of exploded theo- 
ri^^s and batters down the antiquated and useless bulwarks around the 
temple of freedom, in order to erect on the spots where they stood, more 
noble and durable structures. 

This single engine is adequate to the overthrow of slavery. By means 
of it let the simple doctrines, that slavery is a sin, and ought immediately 
to be repented of — that the black man has rights of which ho is robbed and 
that they ought immediately to bo restored to him — and that this can be 
done with safity and benefit to both master and slave, be promulgated, 
enforced and elucidated, till they come homo to the bosoms and conscien- 
ces of the American people, and the great work will approach its consum- 
mation. Lat them but once b3 engrafted upon the public mind, as being 
what they in reality are, undeniable truths, and the work is done. But 
even these simple doctrines, which ought to be received as axioms in reli- 
gion and freedom, cannot bo introduced into the public sentiment except 
by discussion — by earnest remonstrance — by the exhibition of facts — by 
appeals to history and experience — by solemn warning and admonition — 
bv persuasion and argument and exhortation. The public opinion and- 
feeling are perverted — tliey sustain, protect, and oven cherish slavery. 
When they are corrected, slavery is abolished. 

This revolution cannot bo commenced in the South, bf^causc there tlie 
sentiment and moral sense of the people are vitiated. Slaverj' has incor- 
porated itself into their habits of life and their modes of tliinking. They 
have become, by a long course of familiarity with it, and by perverse rea- 



foninge and teachings, wed to its enorinities and insensiblo to its wronjcs- 
Tlie Soath need not simply to be aroused from indifference, tliey must }«;• 
converted from idolatry. In the North, on the othor hand, thoiigli slavory 
has spread its haneful dogmas through the community and the public mind 
has boon lulled by falsa professions into false hop^s and a fatal security, 
and the public conscience has been drugged, by opiates of sin, into a death- 
fiko slumber, still, the minds of the people, when properly awakened to 
the subject, are not vitiated. Those false hopes may be chased from their 
imaginations and their consciences may be aroused from that kthargy. 
Tiio work, then must commence in the free states. The public sentimeBt 
nmst first be set right there and it will than spread with irrestible sway over 
the South. That there is need of correction in the sentiment of the North, 
requires no argument to prove. Onco j'ou could not have heard a whisper 
of ap]>rovai of slavery or of acquiescmce in ils continuiince. Now the 
popular cry is — it is no- concern of oitrs, let the South hive their slavenj and 
(dice care of their slaves — to discuss slavery is an intermedling with what we 
do not understand — the slaves of the South are better off than the laboring 
class of the North — it ivotdd render the condition of the slaves much worse 
io emancipate them — the South cannot exist without their slaves — we must 
stand by the people of the South in defence of their domestic iiistitutions and 
help them to jnit down the fanatics who contend that the negro has rights. 
Nay, it is no oncommon thing to hear northern freemen, libelling the 
goodness of the common father of men, by impiously declaring that they 
believe the black man was created to be a slave .' And can the public senti- 
ment of a free government which tolerates such monstrous doctrines l)» 
oorrect ? Now a full and faithful discussion of slavery will banish these 
heresies from the free states and piace the subject on a true and im- 
moveable foundation. 

What has not discussion done on other questions of like moment and like 
concernment? How was the Slave Trade abolished in England ? TJiat ter- 
rible traffic had once got the same masti-ry of the public mind and public 
voice in that country, that slavery has in this. But the efforts of the self 
devoted Clarkson and his patriotic associates, aroused the sleeping spirit 
of freedom in British hearts and they drove the horrible abuse from their 
shores. And that noble triumph of liberty was achieved by discussion — 
by discussion in the face of popular fury — amid the denunciations of avarica 
— in defiance of sneers and scoffings and against the influence of Lords spir- 
itual and Lords t3mporal. 

How let me ask is any great reform, either in morals or politics, accom- 
plished, except by a resort to this very instrument of operation ? How is 
the demon of Intemperance assaulted and subdued ? How is a political 
heresy overthrown ? Most obviously by the power of discussion correcting 
public opinion. And shall that whicli is equal to the task of settling dispu- 
ted theories and nice questions of law and ethics, be powerless in estab- 
lishing the first great principles of liberty — in setting up in the hearts of 
a people nurtured on a soil redeemed by the blood of patriots, the worship 
of frcfnlom, trodden down by corrupting avarice and heartless power ? Shall 
that which can arouse the sensibilities — stir up the affections — awaken the 
energies — exalt the imagination — sliarpen the intellect and render keen the 
moral sense, on every other question of human responsibilities, of human 
rights and of human sufferings, fail in the cause of tlie bleeding, the outcast 
and the helpless slave ? 

But, it is said, to discuss thi.s subject out of the slave slates will do no 
good, because the people of those states have the .sole control and the solo 



J3 

powci of I, gialaticn over it. It is for tlie rL'uson, tiiut the people nf tbo 
i^outli havo tlie control of it, that we rely upon tlic power of discussion iirii? 
j)uJ)lic opinion, to efFoct tlic dfsirod object. If slavery existed in dfspi/dc 
frovernments there, we should have no means of roacliing it — it would tlioii 
be controlled by an Autocrat or an Aristocracy whom discussion or the pub- 
lie voice would not affect — they would continue or abolish it, as they should 
deem cither course most in accordance with considerations of political cx- 
padiency. But wliere the people are the source of power, you hav.; but to 
obtain their voice in favor of any measure and the ohj ct is accomplislud. 
Their will is law. And are we to take it for granted that the p -opl ! of the 
South cannot be converted from their errors in relation to this matter 7 
Have they not souls and c.innot thoso souls be touched 7 Have tlu-y not 
synip:itliies and cannot thoso sympathies b3 moved? Have thcj- not con- 
sciences and cannot those consciences be pricked? Have lliey not minds 
and cannot those minds be convinced ? Is slavery capablo of being dof-n- 
dcd, that tliey cannot be won from its embrace and led to its r.-jection ? Is 
it so great a blessing, that they will cling to it as a household r^od 7 Is it 
eo great a safeguard to tliemselves and families that they cannot be induc- 
ed to part with its protection 7 Is its morality so chastening that they 
cannot separate themselves from its influences 7 On the contrary every 
thing conspires to render it impossible for them to sustain slavery. 

It is said again, that discussion only produces exasperation at the South. 
And why are tlic people of that section exasperated 7 Are they offended 
at statements they can disprove ? At arguments they can refute ? At 
doctrines that are unsound ? Certainly not. Men do not act thus. They 
arc exasperated because they find themselves in a false position before the 
World. Their interest, eaf e and habits are at war with truth and conscience, 
and they bluster because tlioy havo no other defence for tlieir conduct — 
they raj/ because tlu!y cannot reason. They are much in the same pre- 
dicament tliat certain artists of old were — they have little to say in favor 
of the Diari.in shrines nor can they refute the doctrines of Paul and hia 
associates, and, as tlie only resort left, they sensessly shout for the Goddess 
and brutally mob the Apostles. Tlie true secret of the violence of the 
South is, that the real slave-holder, who is wedded to the system, fears the 
force of truth upon the consciences of tliosa who arc yet witliin the pale 
of philanthopy and within the influence of religion and patriotism. Th» 
ver)' champions of the system even, admit substantially the truth of this 
remark. Wiio can doubt, then, that tlic South occupying such a position, 
must fail to maintain it ; and when once the charm of their system is broken, 
freedom begins to dawn amid the darkness of their despotism. Their very 
phrensy will, in the end, react and b;.coino a powerful instiniraent in urging 
forward emancipation. 

Suppose now we give ourselves up to the guidance and instruction of the 
opponents of emancipation and discussion, and let us see where wo shall 
land — what will be the results of their arguments when carried out into 
practice. They say that neither the free st.its nor Congress havD any 
legislative power over slavery, in the slaveholding states. Granted. They 
.•fay that by the constitution the pcoj)le of the free states are bound, when 
called upon in the prescribed manner, to assist the South in quelling "do- 
mestic violence." Granted. They say, too, that the people of the froo 
states have no right to discuss the subject of slavery with a view to its abo- 
lition. Now if we admit this proposition also, to what do we arrive but 
that'slavery must continue as long as the slaveholder may choose to clinjr 
to it, and thai evett the physical force of the free states must guaranty its ex 



14 

istntre to him ngairml all attempts of the slave to regain his lust lights — to 
shake off a yoke, in comparison witfi vvliich the one our fathers resisted, 
for wliich resistance we revere their niciiioric-s, was but as a straw. Sure- 
ly such a doctrine is slavish enough for any meridian ! 

But the objection most often resorted to, against the discussion of this 
snbicct and most calculated to deter those who have not examined the 
merits of the question piesented them, from attending to it, is, that it will 
dissolve the Union — that tlie south will not submit to any aitempts to abolish 
slavery, but will rather rend the bonds that bind the states together. No 
man reverences the Union more than I do. The last thing I would know- 
ingly do, would be to give any just cause for the severance of the national 
compact. But whodo3s not know that slavery more directly threatens the 
dissolution of the Union, independent of the question of its abolition, than 
all other causes put together ? Had I time it were an easy task to show 
that it has been working mischief from the very organizat ion of the 
government It creates an interest in the country that is entirely at war 
with tlie interests of freemen. It is a discordant and jarring chord in the 
harmonies of our system. Slave labor and free labor cannot both well ex- 
ist in the same government. The legislation which is beneficial to the one 
is destructive to the prosperity of the other. And while this is the case, 
although the slaves are considered as so much property — as so much live 
stock, in short — they send into Congress twenty five representatives to in- 
fluence and control the legislation of the country. This power has been 
again and again used for the purpose of cramping the energies of free labor. 
The policy of the South, arising from this institution among them, has ever 
been hostile to that of the other portions of the union, especially New Eng- 
land. Take for instance the question of the Tariff. After the close of 
the last war when the daring enterprise of northern freemen had carried 
the commerce of the nation into every sea and they were reaping the rich 
rewards of their toil and dangers, southern statesmen, jealous of the pros- 
perity of freedom, and wishing to throw the burthen of the national debt 
from their slave gains upon the commerce and consumption of the free 
states, originated the system of imposts, instead of the direct tax which 
had previously been resorted to and by which the South were made to con- 
tribute to the public treasury in proportion to their representation in Con- 
gress, for the avowed purpose of encouraging manufactures. They sue. 
ceeded and the commerce of New England was crippled. But her indomi. 
table freemen immjdiately changed the direction of their efforts and adapted 
their enterprise to the new state of things, and tlie " industry of frv!edom," 
thouo-h stricken down for a moment by slavery, had no soon r touched the 
earth, than it rose again, Antaeus-like, with irrepressible energy, turning the 
very engine wielded for its destruction into a kind of Philosopher's Stone. 
Manufactures sprang up as by enchantment and the golden stream flowed 
once more in the channels of northern enterprise. The South was again 
left behind in the career of prosperity, loaded as she was by the incubus of 
slavery. Then came the war upon the Tariff system and the Union was 
saved only by yielding uptliat system JoA/cA the South originated, to Slave- 
holding Nullification ! Thus has slavery ever warred upon the interests of 
the free states and thus it ever will ; and wlienever the people of those 
states, tired of the exactions and wrongs inflicted upon them by this prin- 
ciple of evil, shall maintain their own interests against those of the South 
and in defiance of their menaces, then will come the dissolution of the 
Union in reality. 

Slavery has operated, moreover, as a sort of talisman, to keep the south- 



15 

orn Htiitcs bandod logothcr.by means of wliich t!ioy havt; givou the repub- 
lic four out of six Presidents and kept tlic patronagii of thu goncrttl govern- 
ment and the veto power in the hands of a slaveholder thirty two out of 
forty years.* Tlic tendency of all thnse things is to the sund.^ring of tlio 
Union, and slavery is the cause of them all. Remove that and you take 
from this people the Apple of Discord. 

But upon what pretext will the South dissolve the Union ? Because 
freemen will not consent to pat gags in their mouths and padlocks on their 
presses ? Because they insist upon exercising undoubted constitutional 
rights ? Because they will not submit to the dictation and succumb to the 
violence of southern task masters and crouch like their own slaves under 
their threatenings ? And to secure what, are such concessions to be made ? 
The perpetuity of slavery .' It comes, then, to this, that tiiq South in tiio 
plenitude of their magnanimity and patriotism oft'.T to perpetuate the Union 
on the very modest conditions, that we yield tip to tlicm the riglit of freo 
discussion and acquiesce in silence, in the existence of an institution which 
robs millions of our fellow men of that which the Union was designed to 
secure to all, freedom ! Most generous people ! to grant Ub the continuance 
of the government on such terms ! Who will not say, that if the Union 
is to be preserved on sucli conditions alone, it is not worth preserving, and 
if the South choose to dissolve it for such causes, let them dissolve it and 
take the consequences. On this point I adopt the language of an eloquent 
writer of the day.t 

" If the Union can be preserved only by the imposition of chains on 
speech and the press, by a prohibition of discussion on a subject involving 
the most sacred rights and dearest interests of humanity, then Union would 
be bought at too dear a rate ; then it would be changed from a virtuous 
bond into a league of crime and shame. — Language cannot easily do justice 
to our attachment to the Union. We will yield every thing to it but Truth, 
Honor and Liberty. These we can never yield." 

To the South it would be an appropriate and sufficient answer to their 
arrogant demands on this topic, to reply in the words of one of their most 
renowned champions on a certain occasion — " Liberty first and tfnion 
aflerwurds." But we adopt the language of a loftier patriotism and a no- 
bler eloquence and say — " Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and 
inscperable." 

Let the discussion go on, then, in the name of freedom, humanity and 
justice. 

" From each and all, if God hath not forsaken 

Our land, and left us to an evil choice. 
Loud as the summer thunder bolt shall waken 
A people's voice I 

Startling and stern I the northern winds shall bear it 

Over Potomac's to St. Mary's wave ; 
And buried Freedom shall awake to hear it 
Witjiin her grave. 

O let that voice go fortli ; — the bondmen sighing 

By Santec's wave — in Mississippi's cane, 
Shall feel the hope, within his bosom d^'ing. 
Revive again. 

L-^t it go forth I — The millions who are gazing 

Sadly upon us, from afar, shall smilo. 
And, unto God devout thanksgiving raising, 
Bless us the while. 



* In this estimate no account is made of Washington's administration, 
as he was the choice of all. 

t Dr. Clianniiig. 



16 

O, fbi our ancK-nt freodoni, pure and holy. 
For the deUvprnnce of a groaning eartli. 
For tlie wrong;'d captive, bleeding, crushed, and lo-.vly, 
L- 1 it go forth !" 

Public opinion cannot bo walled in. Tho people of tlia Soutli cannot 
shut it out froiu their borders. It knows no barriers — is not arrested by 
goographic.il boundaries — is not hemmed in by state lines or imprisoned 
by state legislation. It is a moral atmosphcro which spreads itsulf noise- 
lessly throughout the domains of intellect and intelligence. Like electric, 
ity, it mingles itself with all the elements of the moral world and imper- 
ceptibly becomes a part of the mental constitution. Neither its progress or 
its power can be stayed. Its course is onward and its conquests are un- 
coasintr. It will infuse itself into the bosoms of our southern brethren 
and disentomb tho buried spirit of liberty there. It will awaken again in 
them those generous sympathies, those noble purposes and those elevated 
eentimeuts which they once so gloriously exhibited and wliich have no fel- 
lowship with slavery. Their pulses will y(;t beat in unison with those of their 
northern brethren on this subject. The pleadings for the oppressed which 
stir New England hearts will yet find a lesponso in Carolinian bosoms , 
and tho shout for Emancipation wliich shall go up from Bunker's Hill, 
will be echoed from the field of Guilford and the heights of Yorktown. 

The day that siiall witness the triumph of public opinion over slavery is 
fast approaching. From the eminence on which I now stmd, I see in the 
far off distance the great prison house of death. Its gloomy walls, built 
«p on human hearts and cemented by human tears and blood, tower up 
Into the skies with a heaven-insulting glory. Its impious spires and un- 
hallowed domes, burnished with the gold wrung from the sweat and toil 
•of the defenceless, flash defyingly in the sun. It ssems to mock the powt r 
of tho earthquake and the storm. But while I gaze, I S3e the heaving of 
tho ocean of public opinion, beneath my feet, Tho great fountains of its 
deep are breaking up. I hear tho moan of tho coming tempest as it mus. 
tersits storms afar off; and tho skies gather blackness above my head. Tli ; 
billows go sweeping on in majesty and might. The surge beats upon the. 
base of that proud edifice. Tho indignant tempest goes careering over tlio 
face of the moved waters. Tho roar of the roused ocean comes thundering 
upon the ear. Tlie waves, crested with fury, beat with resistless energy 
upon its massive structures. The waters and the storm are up in their 
wrath and speak now with an " earthquake voice." I see that Bastile o^ 
human hearts tremble from its very base. Its walls are shaking in the 
elemental war. Behold its towers and turrets nod and topple to their fall. 
See ! its foundations give way — it reels, it sinks, it plunges, is gone, and 
the waters pass over it and hide it forever I The spirit of peace and lova 
broods over the tempest and it is hushed. The ocean sinks into unruffled 
calmness and the fury of the storm is stilled. And hark ! strains of thn 
sweetest harmony break upon the ear. A chorus of millions of voicen 
comes swelling upon tho calm, still air, hymning praises and thanksgivings. 
It is tho music of red3eniod hearts and disenthralled spirits. Oh I tlie sub- 
limity of that song of the free.' How its strains are caught from lip to lip, 
from the valley to tho hill top, from mountain to mountain, until the wholu 
land is wrapt in its melody and the skies reverberata with the pyaling 
anthem. 



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